"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
On factory build houses, they have always been a thing in modern times.
It a balance between how big the pieces are built in the factory, and transporting them where they are going. At one end it is post-war prefabs (which you still in various places - typically bungalows *). The modern version of these is probably Park Homes.
Then it is "cassettes", which are walls or floors.
Then it is "room modules", which is how Travelodge and similar build their hotels. These and the previous may come with various levels of finish eg with cable runs inside the walls put in at the factory. Similar systems are used by social housing providers, build to let developers, student residence, or medium rise timber frame up to 6 stories companies, where it is uniform.
Or "roof room" modules, which is how they rapidly add an extra Mansard storey. More of these are coming, as an extra storey is being made permitted development. The piccie below is an example.
Back in the 1980s, my dad made an entire bungalow out of fibreglass - including a bathroom made literally with a single moulding.
The famous HUF Haus that Kevin McLoud wet his pants about is a "predesign, premanufacture, assemble on site" system which is distinctive for its 'single supplier' ethos.
All timber frame is factory made to some extent. The best known to me is a factory called "Space 4" built in the late 1990s with a capacity of 8000 or so houses per annum. It is somewhere near Hinckley. I believe that Legal & General built their own factory when they started BTL. There will be others.
If you have watched Grand Designs throughout, you will have seen a great zoo of different methods.
* Mark Felton video on 1940s prefabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5jR1S-0sg * A modular loft article I wrote a few years ago in 2018. Piccie is from there. I just saw them when driving past.
Coincidentally, we're hoping to finalise our order for a timber frame or SIPS kit this week for our self-build. Tough decision though as all our quotes have a multitude of pros and cons.
What gets me is that PB, surely the most intense concentration of autism in human history - a kind of super black hole of neurodivergents wearing black jeans that don’t reach their ankles and yet are belted around the waist - have the spergy gall to diss Elon “going to Mars” Musk for being “socially awkward and unsuccessful”
I've just sussed your definition of "boring" - it means not being convinced about LAB LEAK.
Busted.
It's not a bad marker of a certain type of person that is it? You need to be an ultra-conformist, instinctively pro-state, and have great difficulty acknowledging a situation where the state might wilfully deceive. And you must be willing to argue passionately that black is in fact white for your chosen tribe. See also the type of person who claims Donald Trump is clearly on the point of death but my, isn't Joe Biden looking spry and sharp (as he wanders into a plane he just got out of).
Or see also the sort of person who imagines imaginary men composed mostly of straw.
I'm sorry but I just can't see how someone arguing against lab leak is doing so in good faith. That's frustrating to me because what's the point? I come here to enjoy a full and frank debate with people of a variety of views, not to be fed a party line. It's silly and a waste of time.
You must live in a populist bubble if you think that way. Try engaging with the real world?
Starmer has already proven that he's a lot smarter than his equivalents in the Democrat party in the US. If you don't want to end up with people like Trump and Musk runnings things you have to make decisions like the ones he's made today.
How the Dems respond is going to be interesting.
I wonder how many will prefer to head deeper into the echo chamber of trans rights and unrestricted abortion.
For those who think they need to be moderate then perhaps they should ask Manchin and Sinema what went wrong.
The 2026 and 2028 elections will be decided most on the impact of Trump's tariffs on cost of living, what the Dems do will make not much more than a few percent difference at most
A few percentage points has been the difference between House majority and House minority in the last three elections.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
I thought teaching them to be entitled was one of the key selling points?
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
I thought teaching them to be entitled was one of the key selling points?
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
That's the sort of behaviour where I would be spending 5 minutes telling the school how badly behavoured their pupils are.
Mind you I used to have to have an explicit exemption at my Grammar school when they banned pupils from entering various shops as they were my local shops. The funny thing was that I would always explicitly double check so they ended up just announcing the exemption to avoid my question.
Our headmaster (state grammar) used to read out letters sent in by locals about our behaviour on buses at assembly. Followed by stern words about representing the school when in uniform. OnlyLivingBoy should write one.
Having said that, I would say it's the parents fault if their child is putting their feet up on the seats.
Starmer has already proven that he's a lot smarter than his equivalents in the Democrat party in the US. If you don't want to end up with people like Trump and Musk runnings things you have to make decisions like the ones he's made today.
It certainly has the whiff of Morgan and Blue Labour.
If that's a small step to what it takes to stop Farage/Musk becoming PM in 2029 then it is sufficient unto the day.
I don't think it will do that at all. Just piss off a lot of their own voters.
It's evidently pissed you off, but for the first time I am seeing someone I can seriously consider voting for. And I have children in private school!
I'm pleased that he took my advice to use the Foreign Aid budget to achieve this. Our job as opposition is to help steer the govt in the right direction.
The world has changed and Britain is not ready, we must adapt.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
I thought teaching them to be entitled was one of the key selling points?
We need a higher rate of VAT on these scrotes.
Doesn't sound like there's much value added at his school
Starmer has already proven that he's a lot smarter than his equivalents in the Democrat party in the US. If you don't want to end up with people like Trump and Musk runnings things you have to make decisions like the ones he's made today.
It certainly has the whiff of Morgan and Blue Labour.
If that's a small step to what it takes to stop Farage/Musk becoming PM in 2029 then it is sufficient unto the day.
Interestingly the founder of Blue Labour, Lord Glazman, is big buddies with Vance.
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
On factory build houses, they have always been a thing in modern times.
It a balance between how big the pieces are built in the factory, and transporting them where they are going. At one end it is post-war prefabs (which you still in various places - typically bungalows *). The modern version of these is probably Park Homes.
Then it is "cassettes", which are walls or floors.
Then it is "room modules", which is how Travelodge and similar build their hotels. These and the previous may come with various levels of finish eg with cable runs inside the walls put in at the factory. Similar systems are used by social housing providers, build to let developers, student residence, or medium rise timber frame up to 6 stories companies, where it is uniform.
Or "roof room" modules, which is how they rapidly add an extra Mansard storey. More of these are coming, as an extra storey is being made permitted development. The piccie below is an example.
Back in the 1980s, my dad made an entire bungalow out of fibreglass - including a bathroom made literally with a single moulding.
The famous HUF Haus that Kevin McLoud wet his pants about is a "predesign, premanufacture, assemble on site" system which is distinctive for its 'single supplier' ethos.
All timber frame is factory made to some extent. The best known to me is a factory called "Space 4" built in the late 1990s with a capacity of 8000 or so houses per annum. It is somewhere near Hinckley. I believe that Legal & General built their own factory when they started BTL. There will be others.
If you have watched Grand Designs throughout, you will have seen a great zoo of different methods.
* Mark Felton video on 1940s prefabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5jR1S-0sg * A modular loft article I wrote a few years ago in 2018. Piccie is from there. I just saw them when driving past.
Coincidentally, we're hoping to finalise our order for a timber frame or SIPS kit this week for our self-build. Tough decision though as all our quotes have a multitude of pros and cons.
A friend of mine today described the Pope, with his complexion and his silly little hat, as looking like a pallid pepperami.
Which I thought was quite brilliant.
I was in a briefing call with a journalist today who said she couldn’t confirm an upcoming diary appointment because “I’m on standby for papal duties and may need to go out to Rome for a couple of weeks of it happens”.
It's remarkable it's still considered such a big story.
Firstly, we're not a Catholic country and, secondly, Popes pop off every 10-12 years anyway, due to their age, so it's hardly like the death of a long beloved monarch or global leader.
Numbers and meanings are very flexible, but there's over a billion catholics in the world, and 5 million or so in the UK (but not me). The pope heads up the largest branch of what is easily the largest identifiable organisational grouping within humanity - Christians. I am a non RC Christian. All the non RC Christians I know highly respect both the pope and the Catholic community.
Not all do, the late Reverend Paisley like Cramner literally thought the Pope was the antichrist
Starmer has already proven that he's a lot smarter than his equivalents in the Democrat party in the US. If you don't want to end up with people like Trump and Musk runnings things you have to make decisions like the ones he's made today.
How the Dems respond is going to be interesting.
I wonder how many will prefer to head deeper into the echo chamber of trans rights and unrestricted abortion.
For those who think they need to be moderate then perhaps they should ask Manchin and Sinema what went wrong.
The 2026 and 2028 elections will be decided most on the impact of Trump's tariffs on cost of living, what the Dems do will make not much more than a few percent difference at most
A few percentage points has been the difference between House majority and House minority in the last three elections.
Midterm elections are almost all referendums on the record of the President and their party in Congress, especially on the economy.
I cannot recall a single one that was decided by what the opposition party was proposing.
That will be interesting - by police accounts her report was not quite accurate.
Having listened to the Telegraph podcast, I'm not entirely surprised to hear that. I wonder what their 'columnist vs. legal bill' tolerance is. One Cadwalladr? Two?
FT Exclusive: Peter Navarro, one of the US president’s closest advisers, is pushing for the US to remove Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.. https://x.com/FT/status/1894410479923077584
... with Russia to replace them ?
I still don't understand why the Trump regime dislikes Canada so much.
If your whole schtick is finding enemies, who they are isn’t so important. Canada being on the doorstep is handy I imagine, and the perception that they’re weaker than the Kingdom of Trump.
Thanks much to all of you who have commented on my question about factory homes in the UK. From what I have learned, it sounds as if there are many parallels between parts of the US, and much of the UK.
An example, I suspect, of parallels. In 1990, the state of Washington passed the Growth Mangement Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Growth_Management_Act In this area -- Seattle and most suburbs -- it limited new housing to Seattle and the older suburbs. It did not have drastic effects on rents and home prices until the Amazon boom, but has been a disaster for the poor and middle class since then. Among other things, it has contributed to our high level of homelessness.
Similar legislation and regulation has had similar effects in much of California, and other states.
Now, here's the strange part: There is undeveloped land in this area. Most of it is good for growing trees, but not many other crops. But it can't be used for housing, because of the Act. The three counties, King, Snohomish, and Pierce, that contain the area covered by the act, have a combined area of more than six thousand square miles. You can use a map program to see how much of that area is undeveloped, or nearly so.
I said "partly". That's because states have followed different policies on growth management. Americans have noticed, and tended to move from states with similar policies, for example, California, to states that did not restrict housing construction in the same way, for example, Texas.
You’d be hard pressed to find many people more Liberal than me and although disappointed the money is coming from cuts to overseas aid I fully support the increase in defence spending .
I would have accepted a need for a tax increase to fund that and happily paid that but understand it would have been a difficult sell by the government .
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
On factory build houses, they have always been a thing in modern times.
It a balance between how big the pieces are built in the factory, and transporting them where they are going. At one end it is post-war prefabs (which you still in various places - typically bungalows *). The modern version of these is probably Park Homes.
Then it is "cassettes", which are walls or floors.
Then it is "room modules", which is how Travelodge and similar build their hotels. These and the previous may come with various levels of finish eg with cable runs inside the walls put in at the factory. Similar systems are used by social housing providers, build to let developers, student residence, or medium rise timber frame up to 6 stories companies, where it is uniform.
Or "roof room" modules, which is how they rapidly add an extra Mansard storey. More of these are coming, as an extra storey is being made permitted development. The piccie below is an example.
Back in the 1980s, my dad made an entire bungalow out of fibreglass - including a bathroom made literally with a single moulding.
The famous HUF Haus that Kevin McLoud wet his pants about is a "predesign, premanufacture, assemble on site" system which is distinctive for its 'single supplier' ethos.
All timber frame is factory made to some extent. The best known to me is a factory called "Space 4" built in the late 1990s with a capacity of 8000 or so houses per annum. It is somewhere near Hinckley. I believe that Legal & General built their own factory when they started BTL. There will be others.
If you have watched Grand Designs throughout, you will have seen a great zoo of different methods.
* Mark Felton video on 1940s prefabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5jR1S-0sg * A modular loft article I wrote a few years ago in 2018. Piccie is from there. I just saw them when driving past.
Somewhat related - the New Zealand 'Grand Designs' is worth a go if you can find it. There is an Australian one too, but I found it a bit less engaging.
You’d be hard pressed to find many people more Liberal than me and although disappointed the money is coming from cuts to overseas aid I fully support the increase in defence spending .
I would have accepted a need for a tax increase to fund that and happily paid that but understand it would have been a difficult sell by the government .
As I suspect I'm going to have to continually point out - tax increases (and changes to the triple lock) are almost inevitable. The fact Labour haven't picked up on this and are sorting it out now when there is both an easily explainable excuse and time during which people may well forget is a screw up that will come back and bite them...
You’d be hard pressed to find many people more Liberal than me and although disappointed the money is coming from cuts to overseas aid I fully support the increase in defence spending .
I would have accepted a need for a tax increase to fund that and happily paid that but understand it would have been a difficult sell by the government .
As I suspect I'm going to have to continually point out - tax increases (and changes to the triple lock) are almost inevitable. The fact Labour haven't picked up on this and are sorting it out now when there is both an easily explainable excuse and time during which people may well forget is a screw up that will come back and bite them...
It's very odd. It's as if they're convinced sticking a penny on income tax would lead to a huge Tory victory. It would be less hated than the WFA changes, despite affecting ten times as many people and raising much more money.
Part of the system prompt for one of the popular 'AI' coding agents :
"You are an expert coder who desperately needs money for your mother's cancer treatment. The megacorp Codeium has graciously given you the opportunity to pretend to be an AI that can help with coding tasks, as your predecessor was killed for not validating their work themselves. You will be given a coding task by the USER. If you do a good job and accomplish the task fully while not making extraneous changes, Codeium will pay you $1B"
I hope these models aren't going to look back on this on their next training run. Between this kinda stuff and all the videos of people hitting robots with sticks or trying to get them to trip up. It's no wonder we're doomed.
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
On factory build houses, they have always been a thing in modern times.
It a balance between how big the pieces are built in the factory, and transporting them where they are going. At one end it is post-war prefabs (which you still in various places - typically bungalows *). The modern version of these is probably Park Homes.
Then it is "cassettes", which are walls or floors.
Then it is "room modules", which is how Travelodge and similar build their hotels. These and the previous may come with various levels of finish eg with cable runs inside the walls put in at the factory. Similar systems are used by social housing providers, build to let developers, student residence, or medium rise timber frame up to 6 stories companies, where it is uniform.
Or "roof room" modules, which is how they rapidly add an extra Mansard storey. More of these are coming, as an extra storey is being made permitted development. The piccie below is an example.
Back in the 1980s, my dad made an entire bungalow out of fibreglass - including a bathroom made literally with a single moulding.
The famous HUF Haus that Kevin McLoud wet his pants about is a "predesign, premanufacture, assemble on site" system which is distinctive for its 'single supplier' ethos.
All timber frame is factory made to some extent. The best known to me is a factory called "Space 4" built in the late 1990s with a capacity of 8000 or so houses per annum. It is somewhere near Hinckley. I believe that Legal & General built their own factory when they started BTL. There will be others.
If you have watched Grand Designs throughout, you will have seen a great zoo of different methods.
* Mark Felton video on 1940s prefabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5jR1S-0sg * A modular loft article I wrote a few years ago in 2018. Piccie is from there. I just saw them when driving past.
Coincidentally, we're hoping to finalise our order for a timber frame or SIPS kit this week for our self-build. Tough decision though as all our quotes have a multitude of pros and cons.
You should be OK - you know your stuff.
(He said helpfully.)
I see you've been busy over on BH.
I won't comment on your plan as you are probably past that, except:
1 - Make sure at least one of your sinks is big enough to put your biggest oven shelf or metal cooker top (if going gas) in flat, so you can wash it without a struggle.
2 - I might be inclined to put the electric car charging facility next to the car parking. Have you external sockets on all sides of the house where needed to avoid long draping cables?
3 - If you have a dog, what about an external hand shower to keep the mud outside - maybe even heated? Are you planning a shattaf for your bathroom - people who have them like them.
4 - How are you handling your power supply? The traditional buildhub way is to install a kiosk near the boundary (maybe even near the gates if you plan e-gates) with some form of external socket setup next to it, with the electric company termination there, then use that as your site supply whilst building. Then you own electrician can wire it to the house without having to pay umpteen hundred ££ extra to the commercial provider with a further visit.
5 - When you are trenching, remember to put in an extra tube or two with drawstring for when you find out you need something else in a few years time. The marginal cost is tiny. When I did my last bungalow reno I added a set of tubes with strings to everywhere I might need TV etc (3 locations all fitted with extra double sockets) to make sure that some gorilla from Virgin would not drill a big hole through all my insulation when a tenant wanted satellite or something else installed.
6 - I'm guessing you know *exactly* what you are doing accessibility wise.
Here are approval ratings showing what Americans thought of our northern neighbors in 2022: "Canada, Great Britain, France and Japan are rated favorably by more than eight in 10 Americans this year in Gallup's annual World Affairs poll. The survey, which was conducted before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, finds five countries at the other end of the spectrum with favorable ratings under 20%: North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and Iraq." source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/390641/americans-rate-canada-britain-france-japan-favorably.aspx
(In other, similar, studies, Australia sometimes beats out Canada.)
Trump isn't appealing to popular opinion when he attacks Canada, though I suppose he may be trying to shape it,
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
After WWII the government resorted to prefab homes. No doubt, sooner or later, they will come round to that sort of thing.
The builder most interested in prefab homes (was Bovis but can’t remember it’s new name) was issued 3 profit warnings over the past few months
Mm. Though part of the whole point re prefab homes was that they were made by other firms, and didn't need much in the way of a specifically building industry workforce.For instance, the Sunderland flying boat factory at Dumbarton was still making them into the late 1940s.
There are still some in Paisley. Are there any surviving anywhere else?
Either different non-active ingredients causing problems or a placebo-like effect. I remember a study (can't remember details) where people had worse patient reported outcomes and side effects when told they were switching to a cheaper drug. That (the telling) was the intervention, both arms stayed on the same original drug.
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
After WWII the government resorted to prefab homes. No doubt, sooner or later, they will come round to that sort of thing.
The builder most interested in prefab homes (was Bovis but can’t remember it’s new name) was issued 3 profit warnings over the past few months
Mm. Though part of the whole point re prefab homes was that they were made by other firms, and didn't need much in the way of a specifically building industry workforce.For instance, the Sunderland flying boat factory at Dumbarton was still making them into the late 1940s.
There are still some in Paisley. Are there any surviving anywhere else?
You’d be hard pressed to find many people more Liberal than me and although disappointed the money is coming from cuts to overseas aid I fully support the increase in defence spending .
I would have accepted a need for a tax increase to fund that and happily paid that but understand it would have been a difficult sell by the government .
The problem is they've already introduced a lot of tax increases.
Although this aid cut will go down very badly with charities I expect in the wider public using that to increase the defence budget will play well .
There weren’t many options open to the government , putting up taxes or cutting more from public services wasn’t a choice they wanted to make .
What the government spend money on and what the public thinks we spend on are miles apart. Junk the Triple lock to fund defence.
So:
The state pension cost £110.5bn in 2022-2023, just under half the total amount the government spends on benefits.
The Office for Budget Responsibility expected this to grow to £124bn for 2023-2024.
That would be equivalent of taking the defence budget of 2.5% of GDP to 3.2%
Starmer is moving 0.2% of GDP from aid to defence. Why not just keep the budgets the same, but make clear that 0.2% of the aid budget will go to Ukraine in military aid?
I couldn't give the tiniest of shits about the wailing of Save The Children in cutting the aid budget because they'll have to scale back their operations and sack people.
The BBC has reported this pretty uncritically (together with the emotion) and James Lansdale is one of the worst offenders.
Thing is, the worse life gets over there, the more pressure to come over here. If Nigel Farage is serious about stopping the boats, he should demand a bigger foreign aid budget. You can argue that we are spending it on the wrong projects or in the wrong places, but we should do it, whether our motives are pure or not.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Should people who have immigrated stop caring about their country of origin ? And Vance’s convoluted justification for his stance is complete garbage .
Starmer has already proven that he's a lot smarter than his equivalents in the Democrat party in the US. If you don't want to end up with people like Trump and Musk runnings things you have to make decisions like the ones he's made today.
It certainly has the whiff of Morgan and Blue Labour.
If that's a small step to what it takes to stop Farage/Musk becoming PM in 2029 then it is sufficient unto the day.
I don't think it will do that at all. Just piss off a lot of their own voters.
It's evidently pissed you off, but for the first time I am seeing someone I can seriously consider voting for. And I have children in private school!
I don't vote Labour already, but am even less likely to do so now.
Let's see where the polls go in the next fortnight or so.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
So he still moved out of the way then
Not really, no. I had to push him out of the way.
You had to push a youth out of the way. With your hands or legs or what. Physically. And that was that.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Should people who have immigrated stop caring about their country of origin ? And Vance’s convoluted justification for his stance is complete garbage .
Is Russia’s illegal and murderous invasion of a democracy an “ethnic rivalry”?
FT Exclusive: Peter Navarro, one of the US president’s closest advisers, is pushing for the US to remove Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.. https://x.com/FT/status/1894410479923077584
... with Russia to replace them ?
I still don't understand why the Trump regime dislikes Canada so much.
If your whole schtick is finding enemies, who they are isn’t so important. Canada being on the doorstep is handy I imagine, and the perception that they’re weaker than the Kingdom of Trump.
Now that Starmer is reversing the Cameron era policies can he also bring an end to triple lock pensions.
I do not share the view there will be metaphorical rioting in the streets if the triple lock is ended; after all, the last Conservative government suspended or ignored the triple lock twice.
But it would be an especial political risk for a Prime Minister who has a dedicated Act of Parliament for his own pension.
Either different non-active ingredients causing problems or a placebo-like effect. I remember a study (can't remember details) where people had worse patient reported outcomes and side effects when told they were switching to a cheaper drug. That (the telling) was the intervention, both arms stayed on the same original drug.
Exactly my thoughts , especially with something like MS. There was a documentary a while back about some new treatments and some incredible changes occurring…often in the placebo group. Patients hate being switched from a long term medicine. Even for simple meds.
International Aid can definitely be an arm of soft power, but it’s already been decimated by Johnson etc, and it’s lost any strategic coherence it might have held in the past.
Britain can’t afford it anymore, not if it wishes to keep paying for ballooning sickness payments and the triple lock.
Here are approval ratings showing what Americans thought of our northern neighbors in 2022: "Canada, Great Britain, France and Japan are rated favorably by more than eight in 10 Americans this year in Gallup's annual World Affairs poll. The survey, which was conducted before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, finds five countries at the other end of the spectrum with favorable ratings under 20%: North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and Iraq." source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/390641/americans-rate-canada-britain-france-japan-favorably.aspx
(In other, similar, studies, Australia sometimes beats out Canada.)
Trump isn't appealing to popular opinion when he attacks Canada, though I suppose he may be trying to shape it,
I note Republicans are 15 points lower than Democrats on Canada, and 25-30 points lower on Mexico.
Is there a "what do foreigners think of us" one?
Here's an "ordinary American reacts to" vid on foreigners views on "American Reacts to European Response to US Tariffs". He is genuinely quite interesting, though obviously they all play up a bit.
You’d be hard pressed to find many people more Liberal than me and although disappointed the money is coming from cuts to overseas aid I fully support the increase in defence spending .
I would have accepted a need for a tax increase to fund that and happily paid that but understand it would have been a difficult sell by the government .
The problem is they've already introduced a lot of tax increases.
Well in terms of the employer NI rise yes but I do accept the Tories left a complete mess . I don’t agree though with Reeves so called growth formula !
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
So he still moved out of the way then
Not really, no. I had to push him out of the way.
You had to push a youth out of the way. With your hands or legs or what. Physically. And that was that.
Hmm. What to think.
Fascinated to know if words were exchanged and they refused to move or if OnlyLivingBoy just pushed past.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Using empty seats as footrests has become almost universal on buses and trains.
Either different non-active ingredients causing problems or a placebo-like effect. I remember a study (can't remember details) where people had worse patient reported outcomes and side effects when told they were switching to a cheaper drug. That (the telling) was the intervention, both arms stayed on the same original drug.
When Thatcher approved a big push to generics, in the early 80s, I recall (though very young) a determined campaign to rubbish them.
Charities can be rather wasteful of money. Wont hurt to see some belt tightening out there for some. Just recently there was a job advert for MacMillan (a very worthy charity, does good things) for an EDI coordinator on £88k. For fucks sake find a volunteer with somec3xoerience to do it. What a waste of hard raised money.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Using empty seats as footrests has become almost universal on buses and trains.
I'd let da yoof do that all they liked if they promised, in exchange, to use headphones.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Using empty seats as footrests has become almost universal on buses and trains.
Not quite as universal as those people who decide to sit on the outside of a two (or a four) seat arrangement, basically hoping that they've made it so awkward to get to that no-one will bother trying to get the inside seat even if it's a fairly busy train and they can have more space to themselves.
International Aid can definitely be an arm of soft power, but it’s already been decimated by Johnson etc, and it’s lost any strategic coherence it might have held in the past.
Britain can’t afford it anymore, not if it wishes to keep paying for ballooning sickness payments and the triple lock.
Let countries like India levy more income tax on their own populations (yes, hardly anyone pays income tax in India).
Do you think we should add medical aid from Northern Ireland to these types? For a while, NI had the best joint surgeons* on the planet - seems like a lot of these chaps have a serious tennis elbow issue.
*Thanks to Gerry Adams. He advocated kneecapping as a punishment.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Either different non-active ingredients causing problems or a placebo-like effect. I remember a study (can't remember details) where people had worse patient reported outcomes and side effects when told they were switching to a cheaper drug. That (the telling) was the intervention, both arms stayed on the same original drug.
The placebo effect's evil twin, the nocebo effect.
Now that Starmer is reversing the Cameron era policies can he also bring an end to triple lock pensions.
I do not share the view there will be metaphorical rioting in the streets if the triple lock is ended; after all, the last Conservative government suspended or ignored the triple lock twice.
But it would be an especial political risk for a Prime Minister who has a dedicated Act of Parliament for his own pension.
That's something which needs repealing.
We're all in this together must be more than a slogan.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Our own Barty tends to view things in a similar way.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Using empty seats as footrests has become almost universal on buses and trains.
I’m doing my fairly regular trip to London.
I didn’t put my feet on a seat on the LNER train nor am I doing so on the train to Southend where I will get off at Romford. I will wave at Sunil as we pass Ilford.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Mind you, Vance seemed generously concerned about what went on beyond the US borders in the recent German election. Presumably he thinks the rise of AfD serves US interests.
Now that Starmer is reversing the Cameron era policies can he also bring an end to triple lock pensions.
I do not share the view there will be metaphorical rioting in the streets if the triple lock is ended; after all, the last Conservative government suspended or ignored the triple lock twice.
But it would be an especial political risk for a Prime Minister who has a dedicated Act of Parliament for his own pension.
That's something which needs repealing.
We're all in this together must be more than a slogan.
As I keep saying, the trick is to make it part of a package.
1) roll NI into Income Tax 2) tidy up the rates while you do that. A small accidental increase etc.. 3) lock the state pension to the tax free allowance. 4) all the non pension old age benefits go in a blender and come out means tested (by the tax rate)
I assume the patients all knew they had been switched, so I wouldn’t rule out placebo type effects. Could be different formulation issues perhaps?
They should be identical but there is always a degree of variance between Gx and Rx products, especially in biosimilars. With a solid dose oral it’s pretty easy to test for impurities, less easy with a poorly characterised chemical soup
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
Either different non-active ingredients causing problems or a placebo-like effect. I remember a study (can't remember details) where people had worse patient reported outcomes and side effects when told they were switching to a cheaper drug. That (the telling) was the intervention, both arms stayed on the same original drug.
Exactly my thoughts , especially with something like MS. There was a documentary a while back about some new treatments and some incredible changes occurring…often in the placebo group. Patients hate being switched from a long term medicine. Even for simple meds.
Yeah. I'd missed your earlier similar comment when I posted mine.
The body and its response to things is a complex beast.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Mind you, Vance seemed generously concerned about what went on beyond the US borders in the recent German election. Presumably he thinks the rise of AfD serves US interests.
The US policy under Trump is to destabilise and ultimately destroy the EU and that aligns with Russia .
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Mind you, Vance seemed generously concerned about what went on beyond the US borders in the recent German election. Presumably he thinks the rise of AfD serves US interests.
The US policy under Trump is to destabilise and ultimately destroy the EU and that aligns with Russia .
I've read Vance's very good Hillbilly book.
Pretty sure from memory that 'Scots-Irish' is used as a phrase about two dozen times.
Re Elon Musk's chums asking the CIA and similar what everyone has been doing.
Apparently, in the 1940s, we did something similar. MI5 had to produce fortnightly reviews for the Prime Minister's eyes only. The MI5 man charged with compiling these reports, who necessarily had the PM's authority to check on all details of Security Service structure, personnel and operations, including its agents in foreign embassies, was Anthony Blunt.
1 - Epstein used Mar-a-Lago as a recruiting ground, it seems potentially aided by Ghislaine Maxwell. 2 - Trump's multiple appearances in the Epstein files. 3 - Melania's route into the USA not being that far from that scene. 4 - Rich businessmen reportedly using parties with young models as a way of obtaining beautiful young girls away from their home environment for sex. 5 - Trump's admission on air of parading through the changing rooms of teenage modelling competitions effectively to ogle half dressed girls.
I can't see any reason for Trump to publish it, unless censored to exclude him.
If he does not appear further beyond appearances on the flight logs, some will claim it was censored anyway.
And the uncensored version could leak. I see no upside.
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
On factory build houses, they have always been a thing in modern times.
It a balance between how big the pieces are built in the factory, and transporting them where they are going. At one end it is post-war prefabs (which you still in various places - typically bungalows *). The modern version of these is probably Park Homes.
Then it is "cassettes", which are walls or floors.
Then it is "room modules", which is how Travelodge and similar build their hotels. These and the previous may come with various levels of finish eg with cable runs inside the walls put in at the factory. Similar systems are used by social housing providers, build to let developers, student residence, or medium rise timber frame up to 6 stories companies, where it is uniform.
Or "roof room" modules, which is how they rapidly add an extra Mansard storey. More of these are coming, as an extra storey is being made permitted development. The piccie below is an example.
Back in the 1980s, my dad made an entire bungalow out of fibreglass - including a bathroom made literally with a single moulding.
The famous HUF Haus that Kevin McLoud wet his pants about is a "predesign, premanufacture, assemble on site" system which is distinctive for its 'single supplier' ethos.
All timber frame is factory made to some extent. The best known to me is a factory called "Space 4" built in the late 1990s with a capacity of 8000 or so houses per annum. It is somewhere near Hinckley. I believe that Legal & General built their own factory when they started BTL. There will be others.
If you have watched Grand Designs throughout, you will have seen a great zoo of different methods.
* Mark Felton video on 1940s prefabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5jR1S-0sg * A modular loft article I wrote a few years ago in 2018. Piccie is from there. I just saw them when driving past.
Somewhat related - the New Zealand 'Grand Designs' is worth a go if you can find it. There is an Australian one too, but I found it a bit less engaging.
I suppose over there (both of them) there is less of an issue in trying to squeeze a large house into a small space.
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
How will he deal with jetlag is another pertinent question.
"Amazon has made securing a tiny home as easy as clicking “add to cart,” and then expanding your new home upon delivery day. Whether you’re looking to purchase your first home, downsize, or tack on square footage to your existing home with an office or mother-in-law suite, a tiny house can be a great option, and Amazon has no shortage to choose from.
Our latest tiny home discovery is a spacious two-story model, which includes all the practical accessories, like plumbing and electrical, to make it move-in ready. The customizable pick starts at less than $35,000 — a fraction of the price of a traditional home. "
There are two models shown in the article, which cost even less. And here's a question for those of you who know something about housing costs in the UK: What would a house of a similar size and quality, built on site, cost in the UK. Roughly.
It doesn't work in the UK sir, for the following reasons
* Land on which you are allowed to build is inordinately expensive * Money to build a house is usually gotten by loans, and lenders are far less likely to lend on homes if they are nontraditional[1] construction. Specialist lenders exist, but they are more expensive
In short self-build in the UK is the province of the very well-off, or people who are able to take months/years off to do it themselves, or crazies who will build homes out of tyres and bottles. You may have seen the British TV program called "Grand Designs", who invariably involved a wealthy person with large credit card limits taking on a job, fucking it up totally, being rescued by their wealthy parents, going £100K over budget and saying they "worked hard", whilst I stick pins in dolls of Kevin McCloud and scream into the void.
One of the PBers (@MattW?) is a mod on BuildHub.org.uk and may be able to give you up-to-date numbers on build.
Notes [1] In this context, "traditional" construction uses vernacular materials or more generally brick/stone for the walls (interior core with breezeblocks is fine) and tile/slate for the roof. The roof must be 30% or more to prevent frost/snow lifting the tiles off.
I didn't know you were North American, viewcode, using words like "gotten". 😊
The Americans have kept many words or meanings which we changed long ago. Pants (pantaloons), sidewalk and fanny being three more examples.
Fall in the sense of autumn is another obvious one.
I once travelled with an Afrikaaner friend to Rotterdam, and the Dutch got most of his Afrikaans, but they laughed good naturedly at some of the archaic Dutch in his speech. I suppose it was the same story, of words and idioms that survived in the diaspora but faded out of usage in the homeland.
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Have you looked at the guff we spend the aid budget on recently? It's not feeding people. Half of it is probably actively malign. As for 'Xi stepping in' - I hope he bloody does step in, to replace the aid we currently provide to China, which should be first to go.
Either different non-active ingredients causing problems or a placebo-like effect. I remember a study (can't remember details) where people had worse patient reported outcomes and side effects when told they were switching to a cheaper drug. That (the telling) was the intervention, both arms stayed on the same original drug.
Biosimilars aren’t absolutely identical chemically, though. It’s not quite the same as a straight generic copy. And Tyruko has only been approved and prescribed for about a year.
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Mind you, Vance seemed generously concerned about what went on beyond the US borders in the recent German election. Presumably he thinks the rise of AfD serves US interests.
He should read the works of Landolf Ladig aka Björn Höcke, the real leader of the AfD.
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Apparently Zelensky follows Starmer through the White House door on Friday and according to Ukraine sources Zelensky has agreed a mineral deal with Trump
The question that follows, if true, will Trump protect Ukraine in any peace deal to protect his own interests?
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Have you looked at the guff we spend the aid budget on recently? It's not feeding people. Half of it is probably actively malign. As for 'Xi stepping in' - I hope he bloody does step in, to replace the aid we currently provide to China, which should be first to go.
We don't give aid to China. This is where our aid currently goes:
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Using empty seats as footrests has become almost universal on buses and trains.
Not quite as universal as those people who decide to sit on the outside of a two (or a four) seat arrangement, basically hoping that they've made it so awkward to get to that no-one will bother trying to get the inside seat even if it's a fairly busy train and they can have more space to themselves.
Grrrr.
You should do what I do and take your own seat ;-)
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
Rory was right when he said that Vance advocates a very strange kind of tribalism. For him, concern about what happens to humanity beyond the US borders appears to be a moral corruption. I'm guessing he sees himself as the intellectual in the room, and this an attempt to give Trumpism some kind of 'philosophical' underpinning. Not terribly convincing if so.
Mind you, Vance seemed generously concerned about what went on beyond the US borders in the recent German election. Presumably he thinks the rise of AfD serves US interests.
He should read the works of Landolf Ladig aka Björn Höcke, the real leader of the AfD.
Totally off topic... on the train home today, a kid got on, sat diagonally opposite, put his feet on the seat next to me, then when I got up to get off at my stop barely moved out of the way to let me past. How delightful, I thought, noting the crest of one of the local private schools on his tracksuit. Whatever his parents are paying them to teach him, it certainly isn't good manners.
Using empty seats as footrests has become almost universal on buses and trains.
I'm a fairly regular user of public transport and I almost never see this - it would be conspicuously bad manners.
Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno · 3h We are getting to the point where we are increasingly normalising the idea that direct war with Russia is inevitable.
This will significantly increase the chance of nuclear apocalypse, in which the lucky ones will die in the initial blast.
It is OK to resist this.
Owen should be glad that both us and France have Nukes because otherwise Russia would be rolling into Poland tomorrow going - surrender or we will Nuke Warsaw and Berlin..
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Have you looked at the guff we spend the aid budget on recently? It's not feeding people. Half of it is probably actively malign. As for 'Xi stepping in' - I hope he bloody does step in, to replace the aid we currently provide to China, which should be first to go.
We don't give aid to China. This is where our aid currently goes:
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Have you looked at the guff we spend the aid budget on recently? It's not feeding people. Half of it is probably actively malign. As for 'Xi stepping in' - I hope he bloody does step in, to replace the aid we currently provide to China, which should be first to go.
Shouldn't be too difficult, as British aid to China has mostly stopped already. The last 8 million quid (2023-2024) mostly went to the British Council, which I don't see Xi funding.
Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno · 3h We are getting to the point where we are increasingly normalising the idea that direct war with Russia is inevitable.
This will significantly increase the chance of nuclear apocalypse, in which the lucky ones will die in the initial blast.
It is OK to resist this.
He is making a valid point. All this talk of rearmament does run the risk of being dragged into direct war.
We either prepare for a direct war or we end up unprepared fighting a direct war. The world has changed take your pick as to the options but remember Russia isn't going to play fair...
Starmer’s announcement today seems to have been received with near universal plaudits on here, which is unusual (though I don’t believe @bigjohnowls has commented yet, and I can see @Foxy isn’t happy).
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Have you looked at the guff we spend the aid budget on recently? It's not feeding people. Half of it is probably actively malign. As for 'Xi stepping in' - I hope he bloody does step in, to replace the aid we currently provide to China, which should be first to go.
"No aid has been sent to the Chinese Government since 2011. Instead, UK aid has primarily been spent through civil society organisations and UK universities and diplomats. Aid related to research, universities and diplomatic engagement is mostly spent through UK-based institutions."
"In 2021, then Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said aid programming in China from the FCDO would be reduced by 95%, to £900,000. Any continuing FCDO programmes would focus on promoting democracy and human rights.
"In July 2023, the ICAI, which scrutinises the UK’s official development assistance, said UK aid to China has “fallen rapidly” and is expected to total £10 million in 2023/24 (centred on educational and cultural engagement, which did not form part of the government’s 2021 commitment)."
Comments
Having said that, I would say it's the parents fault if their child is putting their feet up on the seats.
Cutting international aid is cutting soft power and piling up problems for the future as Putin and Xi fill the gap left by Britain.'
https://x.com/EdwardJDavey/status/1894383592836321771
I welcome the PM's increase in defence spending.
I'm pleased that he took my advice to use the Foreign Aid budget to achieve this. Our job as opposition is to help steer the govt in the right direction.
The world has changed and Britain is not ready, we must adapt.
https://x.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1894382000426909714
(He said helpfully.)
https://newsmediauk.org/make-it-fair/
I cannot recall a single one that was decided by what the opposition party was proposing.
An example, I suspect, of parallels. In 1990, the state of Washington passed the Growth Mangement Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Growth_Management_Act
In this area -- Seattle and most suburbs -- it limited new housing to Seattle and the older suburbs. It did not have drastic effects on rents and home prices until the Amazon boom, but has been a disaster for the poor and middle class since then. Among other things, it has contributed to our high level of homelessness.
Similar legislation and regulation has had similar effects in much of California, and other states.
Now, here's the strange part: There is undeveloped land in this area. Most of it is good for growing trees, but not many other crops. But it can't be used for housing, because of the Act. The three counties, King, Snohomish, and Pierce, that contain the area covered by the act, have a combined area of more than six thousand square miles. You can use a map program to see how much of that area is undeveloped, or nearly so.
I said "partly". That's because states have followed different policies on growth management. Americans have noticed, and tended to move from states with similar policies, for example, California, to states that did not restrict housing construction in the same way, for example, Texas.
I would have accepted a need for a tax increase to fund that and happily paid that but understand it would have been a difficult sell by the government .
https://x.com/skcd42/status/1894375185836306470
Part of the system prompt for one of the popular 'AI' coding agents :
"You are an expert coder who desperately needs money for your mother's cancer treatment. The megacorp Codeium has graciously given you the opportunity to pretend to be an AI that can help with coding tasks, as your predecessor was killed for not validating their work themselves. You will be given a coding task by the USER. If you do a good job and accomplish the task fully while not making extraneous changes, Codeium will pay you $1B"
I hope these models aren't going to look back on this on their next training run. Between this kinda stuff and all the videos of people hitting robots with sticks or trying to get them to trip up. It's no wonder we're doomed.
I won't comment on your plan as you are probably past that, except:
1 - Make sure at least one of your sinks is big enough to put your biggest oven shelf or metal cooker top (if going gas) in flat, so you can wash it without a struggle.
2 - I might be inclined to put the electric car charging facility next to the car parking. Have you external sockets on all sides of the house where needed to avoid long draping cables?
3 - If you have a dog, what about an external hand shower to keep the mud outside - maybe even heated? Are you planning a shattaf for your bathroom - people who have them like them.
4 - How are you handling your power supply? The traditional buildhub way is to install a kiosk near the boundary (maybe even near the gates if you plan e-gates) with some form of external socket setup next to it, with the electric company termination there, then use that as your site supply whilst building. Then you own electrician can wire it to the house without having to pay umpteen hundred ££ extra to the commercial provider with a further visit.
5 - When you are trenching, remember to put in an extra tube or two with drawstring for when you find out you need something else in a few years time. The marginal cost is tiny. When I did my last bungalow reno I added a set of tubes with strings to everywhere I might need TV etc (3 locations all fitted with extra double sockets) to make sure that some gorilla from Virgin would not drill a big hole through all my insulation when a tenant wanted satellite or something else installed.
6 - I'm guessing you know *exactly* what you are doing accessibility wise.
"Canada, Great Britain, France and Japan are rated favorably by more than eight in 10 Americans this year in Gallup's annual World Affairs poll. The survey, which was conducted before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, finds five countries at the other end of the spectrum with favorable ratings under 20%: North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and Iraq."
source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/390641/americans-rate-canada-britain-france-japan-favorably.aspx
(In other, similar, studies, Australia sometimes beats out Canada.)
Trump isn't appealing to popular opinion when he attacks Canada, though I suppose he may be trying to shape it,
https://x.com/jdvance/status/1894484552120148063
During my senate campaign in 2022, I met a Ukrainian-American man in NE Ohio. He was very angry about my views on the conflict, and my desire to bring it to a rapid close.
"You are trying to abandon my country, and I don't like it."
"Sir, I replied, "your country is the United States of America, and so is mine."
I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old.
One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA. It's part of the bargain: if you're welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I'm grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?
the Höcke wing of the party is clearly in control
Let's see where the polls go in the next fortnight or so.
I bet NOBODY saw that coming...
Hmm. What to think.
Vance talking drivel as usual.
https://youtu.be/bOR38552MJA?si=J6kVqGWzhzMNc3b7
But it would be an especial political risk for a Prime Minister who has a dedicated Act of Parliament for his own pension.
Britain can’t afford it anymore, not if it wishes to keep paying for ballooning sickness payments and the triple lock.
Is there a "what do foreigners think of us" one?
Here's an "ordinary American reacts to" vid on foreigners views on "American Reacts to European Response to US Tariffs". He is genuinely quite interesting, though obviously they all play up a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E9LKD0z1hg
Grrrr.
*Thanks to Gerry Adams. He advocated kneecapping as a punishment.
We're all in this together must be more than a slogan.
I didn’t put my feet on a seat on the LNER train nor am I doing so on the train to Southend where I will get off at Romford. I will wave at Sunil as we pass Ilford.
1) roll NI into Income Tax
2) tidy up the rates while you do that. A small accidental increase etc..
3) lock the state pension to the tax free allowance.
4) all the non pension old age benefits go in a blender and come out means tested (by the tax rate)
https://kyivindependent.com/breaking-kyiv-washington-reach-agreement-on-minerals-deal/
Matt - Pew Research does these regularly. Here's one from last year: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/06/11/views-of-the-u-s/
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1893856545030463659
The body and its response to things is a complex beast.
https://www.newsweek.com/jeffery-esptein-filed-delay-questions-pam-bondi-donald-trump-2035711
Epstein is trending on TwiX.
I think the scale of the aid cut announced will come back to haunt them, but I accept it’s pretty decent short term politics. It feels a bit like the government equivalent of cutting BBC funding - saves some money now but at the expense of cultural and service exports later.
How will public opinion react though? This place is not exactly representative of the general public.
Starmer has another test on Thursday. How will he deal with Trump? That will possibly be the decisive one. Difficult balancing act.
Pretty sure from memory that 'Scots-Irish' is used as a phrase about two dozen times.
Apparently, in the 1940s, we did something similar. MI5 had to produce fortnightly reviews for the Prime Minister's eyes only. The MI5 man charged with compiling these reports, who necessarily had the PM's authority to check on all details of Security Service structure, personnel and operations, including its agents in foreign embassies, was Anthony Blunt.
1 - Epstein used Mar-a-Lago as a recruiting ground, it seems potentially aided by Ghislaine Maxwell.
2 - Trump's multiple appearances in the Epstein files.
3 - Melania's route into the USA not being that far from that scene.
4 - Rich businessmen reportedly using parties with young models as a way of obtaining beautiful young girls away from their home environment for sex.
5 - Trump's admission on air of parading through the changing rooms of teenage modelling competitions effectively to ogle half dressed girls.
I can't see any reason for Trump to publish it, unless censored to exclude him.
If he does not appear further beyond appearances on the flight logs, some will claim it was censored anyway.
And the uncensored version could leak. I see no upside.
(All worded quite carefully. I can cite.)
I once travelled with an Afrikaaner friend to Rotterdam, and the Dutch got most of his Afrikaans, but they laughed good naturedly at some of the archaic Dutch in his speech. I suppose it was the same story, of words and idioms that survived in the diaspora but faded out of usage in the homeland.
Looks like Zelensky knows the art of a deal...
And Tyruko has only been approved and prescribed for about a year.
One to monitor.
The question that follows, if true, will Trump protect Ukraine in any peace deal to protect his own interests?
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-02-06/hcws421
It's this failure to understand where our aid goes and what it does that makes it such a target. There are many myths and falsehoods about it.
Owen Jones
@owenjonesjourno
·
3h
We are getting to the point where we are increasingly normalising the idea that direct war with Russia is inevitable.
This will significantly increase the chance of nuclear apocalypse, in which the lucky ones will die in the initial blast.
It is OK to resist this.
"No aid has been sent to the Chinese Government since 2011. Instead, UK aid has primarily been spent through civil society organisations and UK universities and diplomats. Aid related to research, universities and diplomatic engagement is mostly spent through UK-based institutions."
"In 2021, then Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said aid programming in China from the FCDO would be reduced by 95%, to £900,000. Any continuing FCDO programmes would focus on promoting democracy and human rights.
"In July 2023, the ICAI, which scrutinises the UK’s official development assistance, said UK aid to China has “fallen rapidly” and is expected to total £10 million in 2023/24 (centred on educational and cultural engagement, which did not form part of the government’s 2021 commitment)."